De Jure & Titles

When a Ruler holds 50% of a de jure territory, be it a Duchy, Kingdom, or Empire, he or she earns the right to Usurp an existing title, or to Create a title if no one already owns it. “BUT HOW?” you say… When you have satisfied the requirements (extra-tricky requirements list at the bottom of this page) to Create or Usurp a Title, you will get a message icon in the top center of the screen:

Create / Usurp

Clicking on either of these will bring up the Realm pane for the Title that can be Created or Usurped. If multiple Titles can be Created or Usurped, clicking the icon a multiple times will cycle through them in the Realm pane.

In this Pane we see the Duchy of Connacht from the point of view of the Count of Breifne in a standard 1066 start.

Our Ruler’s Portrait

The Coat of Arm’s of our Ruler’s primary Title

The Coat of Arms of the Title we are currently viewing in the Realm pane, which is the title we can Create or Usurp.

The name of the viewed Title

The Coats of Arms for the higher ranking titles that this Title is de jure part of. The Duchy of Connacht is a de jure part of the Kingdom of Ireland, so if we were to click the de jure checkbox (item #10), we would see the Coat of Arms for the Kingdom of Ireland here.

Usurp and Create buttons. These share the same location and only one will be present based on if a character in the game presently has the Title in question. If yes, then the button will be Usurp. If no, the button will be Create. The tooltip will let you know how much Gold and/or Piety the action will cost, and how much Prestige you will get in return. This button will be greyed out if you cannot afford the transaction.

If you are viewing a vassal, this button will be ‘Revoke’ to revoke a title. If you are looking at a title you own, this button will give you the option to make this Title your primary Title.

The Claimants button will show you a list of characters who currently hold a claim on the Title you are viewing. If no characters have a claim on the Title, it will be greyed out (which is common at the beginning of a game). For more info on Claimants, click that.

The History button will show you historical data about the holders of this Title. This information has no bearing upon gameplay.

The de jure checkbox. With this box unchecked, field #11 will show the current holdings of the character with this Title. (In the pictured example, The Duke of Connacht owns the County of Connacht, and no more.) With this box checked, field #11 will display all of the holdings which combine to make up this de jure title, with counties held by the player’s Ruler in white, and counties held by others in red. For the Duchy of Connacht, this would be the county of Connacht and the county of Breifne.

The holdings list displays de jure counties or actual holdings, depending on the status of the de jure checkbox above.

Holder portrait will show the character who currently holds this Title, if any.

The holder’s name.

The holder’s holdings.

Creating Vs Usurping

For those Titles in the game which aren’t held by anyone, Kingdoms of Ireland and Sicily for example, the only option available will be to Create the title. Creating Ducal titles will cost around 200 Gold, and reward you with 200 Prestige. Creating a Kingdom will cost you ~400 Gold, as well as 200 Piety, and reward you with 400 Prestige.

Tooltip for Creating the Kingdom of Ireland

Titles that are held can be Usurped when 50% or more of the holdings belonging to the de jure Title belong to you. Usurping a Ducal Title costs the same amount of Gold as Creating the Title, but only rewards 50 Prestige, a quarter of what can be made by Creating it. Usurping the title of King costs the same amount of Gold, but costs no Piety. It also rewards significantly less Prestige than Creating the Title.

So why is there a choice between the two when it seems they are mutually exclusive based on the Title being held or not? Because if the Title is held, and you can eliminate the last lands of the Title holder, the Title will become vacant and need to be Created once more. In the Count of Breifne example above, the Count has this choice. He can wait until he has the money and Usurp the Title Duke of Connacht, or he can go to war with the current Duke, take his single county, and thus eliminate the Duchy entirely. Should he choose the latter, the Title will lapse when the current Duke is eliminated, and he will gain an additional 150 Prestige from Creating it.

With Kingdoms, you may find Usurping the Title to be of more use. While 200 Piety can be gained quickly by some characters, those with traits that bleed off Piety every month can have a lot of difficulty attaining this. If you are in the south you may need to save your Piety to hire Holy Orders with. Any number of reasons may have you saving your Piety, and in these cases you may find that Usurping Kingdom level Titles is a better way to attain them, even when it means getting less Prestige initially.

Unexpected Title Requirements:

Sometimes you think you should be able to create or usurp a title, and dangit, the game won’t let you. It’s probably one of these… Checking the tooltip of the Create / Usurp button may tell you where the problem is, depending on which case you fall into.

As of patch 1.05, to create or usurp a Kingdom, you will need to first have two Ducal titles.

You cannot create or usurp a title equal to that of your liege. If you are a count with a Duke as your liege, you will need to gain independence before you can become a Duke yourself. If you are a Duke who is vassal to a King, you will need your independence before you may yourself attain a Kingdom.

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